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A giant transformer will take most of the weekend to travel 10 miles to Auburn along country roads.

Gina Penzig, spokeswoman for Westar Energy, said people who live in the rural areas south and west of Topeka will see a 365-ton metal box moving by Saturday morning into Sunday.

The size of the box makes the slow journey necessary, Penzig said. In one area, Westar had to hire an excavating company to dig under an overpass so it would fit, she said.

The transformer will be installed in a substation under construction near S.W. 37th and Auburn Road. Westar hasn’t released a specific route, citing security concerns.

Electricity travels from the plant where it is generated to local substations at high voltages. In the substations, transformers reduce it to a lower voltage that homes and businesses can use.

The transformer arrived by rail in Pauline on Wednesday. A special trailer had to built Thursday and Friday for the 43-foot-long, 24-foot-wide, 30-foot-tall transformer.

It will replace a substation that dates to the 1950s, which is no longer enough to handle increased demand around Topeka, said Doug Sterbenz, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Westar.

“Auburn Road was a dirt road when the previous substation was built,” he said. “The electricity needs of the city and our customers have dramatically changed, and our expectations for reliability have, too.”

The new substation is part of a $150 million project to update the grid around Topeka.

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Scrap metal... they're scared of the copper thieves seeing it as $$$ since scrap is waaaaaaaay up these days... altho they'd need a lot of pick up trucks to haul it away bit by bit... try 85th maybe to Auburn Rd then north ???

The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence. - Robert Peel

I am sure the security concern they cite is more in the form of environmental activists- such as Earth Liberation Front- who might seize on this opportunity to block the route and stage some sort of protest to gain publicity. From their standpoint bigger = more development = loss of the natural environment.

These large transformers are extremely expensive and difficult to get. It can take years to order and get one delivered. Even though Westar doesn't comment, it is likely it was built in India or China and had to be shipped all the way around the world to be installed in Topeka.

I can understand security, but one, I think they will see a specially designed trailer and crane coming down the road if someone intends to steal it or try to break into it to strip it.

The route can't be that hard to figure out. Since they are at Pauline and need to get to 37th and Auburn, it is reasonable that they will be going down Auburn at some point. The staging area for the start was mostly right in front of the Forbes Field golf course. Given that, I see one of two routes they could have chosen given they are having to lower a road under a bridge and at 365 tons, not every road can handle the weight, nor can the bridges. It would have to be a path that is more solidly built and as few as turns as possible. Probably done over night as much as possible to make use of the low traffic areas giving its 24 foot wide.

I am glad that Westar is paying to reduce the level of the road so they can go under a bridge, but will they be paying something for road maintenance? At 365 tons traveling at an average of .28 miles an hour (assuming it actually takes 36 hours to go 10 miles), at any given point in time, the road will be under stresses it was not designed for. It will not take having the trailer too much close to the edge of the road to break off the edge of the asphalt. The trailer design will spread that weight out, but there is still the potential for damage.